St. James area of Central Sydney
We took a shuttle van from the airport to our hotel – the Airport Ibis in Mascot – and then after a shower and cleanup, headed to the business core of Sydney. There is a train station just about 500 m from our hotel, so we walked to that. We only had Australian fifty dollar bills, and the ticket dispensers wouldn’t take anything that high. Without a ticket you can’t get through the gates, so we were stuck until a ticket clerk saw us and let us through. They do have a ticket wicket, but it’s on the inside of the turnstiles so I’m not quite sure what good that would be. The train is a double decker, and really is a subway for much of it’s travel from the airport to the city centre, only coming above ground once in the middle of the track.
I was very confused about direction. That is very unusual for me, as normally I have no trouble telling which way I am going. Not so today. It was cloudy, and rained some while we were in the city centre, so there was no sun. But since it’s to the north of you, I find that confusing in trying to decide which is east and west. We had a print out of the Google map of the city centre, but it wasn’t in enough detail to see all the streets, and when we came up from underground in the subway, we were turned around and walking the wrong way. We walked quite a bit farther than we needed to, but asking people on the street got us pointed in the correct direction.
The 48 Martin Place office of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia is a magnificent building. It has high ceilings, probably 30 or more feet high with green marble columns to an ornate gilded roof. The tellers were behind a high wooden wall with old style metal grills. The bank is obviously very old, and very large for the number of people that were inside. However, it is also the main commercial bank for Sydney.
Next we stopped in a computer store to inquire where the Telstra store was. We walked through downtown Sydney, which is a very nice city with an interesting mixture of new and old architecture. At one point we saw a Tiffany’s on one side of the street and Prada on the other, so it certainly wouldn’t take long to spend all your money.
When we returned from central Sydney we walked a couple of miles to the shopping area of Mascot. There we got a bit of groceries at the IGA – enough for supper tonight and breakfast and lunch tomorrow. So we have our phone, our banking sorted out, and now will be starting to look for our motorhome tomorrow. I don’t relish the thought of driving. It’s a busy city with heavy traffic, and of course it’s all on the wrong side of the road!